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| 2.5 stars out of 5 |
Alvin Miller, a gifted seventh son of a seventh son, utilizes his skills as a Maker to help create a brighter future for America, but his task is further challenged by his ancient enemy, the Unmaker, who plots to end Alvin's life.
This is such a weird alternate history series! Welcome to a North America that has been torqued into a strange shape by this author. The race relations have a really odd feel, with Indigenous people retreated to an area beyond a river and a mysterious bank of cloud which prevents Caucasians from visiting them. Black people’s lives are more similar to actual history, with slaves, slave finders, and free people of colour (who nonetheless face discrimination).
The most obvious theme in this installment is that of Cain and Abel, two brothers at odds with one another. In this case, it’s Calvin and Alvin, with Calvin resenting his older brother so much that he elects to leave their community and seek his own position in the world. Unfortunately, he has an undeservedly high opinion of himself and a nasty disposition. Why be kind when you can blackmail, amiright? (Wikipedia helpfully tells me that Cain's name means "smith" and resembles the verb 'to make' in Hebrew, perhaps significant as both Alvin and Calvin are Makers and Alvin is a smith?)
Although it doesn’t happen in this volume, Calvin has obviously decided to make Alvin’s life difficult. No doubt that will happen in the next book.
Book number 337 in my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project.
The most obvious theme in this installment is that of Cain and Abel, two brothers at odds with one another. In this case, it’s Calvin and Alvin, with Calvin resenting his older brother so much that he elects to leave their community and seek his own position in the world. Unfortunately, he has an undeservedly high opinion of himself and a nasty disposition. Why be kind when you can blackmail, amiright? (Wikipedia helpfully tells me that Cain's name means "smith" and resembles the verb 'to make' in Hebrew, perhaps significant as both Alvin and Calvin are Makers and Alvin is a smith?)
Although it doesn’t happen in this volume, Calvin has obviously decided to make Alvin’s life difficult. No doubt that will happen in the next book.
Book number 337 in my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project.
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